Business dictating system



May 14, 1940. c. l.. WHITEHEAD ET AL 2,200,351

BUSINESS DIGTATING SYSTEM Filed NOV. 25, 1938 14 Shees-Sheet l WN @mwMayA 14, 1940. c. wHrrEl-IEAD ET AL BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM Filed Nov.25, 1938 14 Shen-:"cs-SheeI May 14, 1940 c. L. wHlTEHl-:AD ET Al.2.200.351

BUSINESS DIGTATING SYSTEM 'Filed Nov. 25, 1938 14 Sheets-Sheet 5 HllllllFra 5.

BY Ig `E ATT0RN..

May 14, 1940- c.| .lwHlTEHx-:AD ET A1. 2,200,351

l BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM 14 Sheets-Sheet 4.

Filed Nov. 23, 1938 RNEY.

May 14, 1940- c. l.. wHlTEHEAD l-:T AL 2,200,351

BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM ATTORNE May 14, 1940. c. L.. WHITEHr-:AD ETA1. 2,200,351

I BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM Filed Nov. 23, 1958 14 Sheets-Sheet 6 May14, 1940. c. wHlTEl- IEAD ET AL BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM Filed Nov. 25,1958 14 SheetsnSheefI 7 ATTORN Y,

May 1431940- C. 1 wHlTEHl-:AD ET AL 2,200,351

BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM Filed Nov. 23, 1938 14 Sheets-Sheet 8 147frcs-Ha M9 I 1 I 565 1 X65 i g 55 i X5 i z I i x g l l i z I g g l i i Il 4l 1 l 'I i l l l e l l l I I i oFF 5gg/ML HMP/m i 1 1 119 i 'l lfis-#d1 I ,4s-5b [7J g i 5 i l l i A uluowmm hmwumm ATTORNEY,

MAY 14, 1940 c. l.. wHlTr-:HEAD x-:r AL 2,200,351

BUSINESS DICTATING' SYSTEM Filed Nov. 23, 1938 276 f ff# Yi wie,

14 Shees-Sheet 9 mmf [llllllll 'wml 'WWW 'WWW ATTORNEY.

c. l.. WHITEHEAD ET Al. 2,200.351

BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM May 14, 1940.

14 Sheets-Sheet 10 Filed NOV. 23, 1938 r w 4 E www m 5 A uno/.M Meg@4me@ Zw@ Hwa@ 7 4 G. E

May 14, 1940- c. l., WHITEHEAD ET AL 2,200,351

BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM Filed NOV. 23, 1958 14 Sheets-Sheet ll YMACH/NE 1 May 14 1940- c. I WHITEHEAD ET Al. 2,200,351

BUSINESS DIGTATING SYSTEM ATTORNEY.

May 14, 1940- c. l.. wHlTr-:Hl-:AD ET A1. 2,200,351

BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM Filed Nov. 23, 1938 14 Sheets-Sheet l5 l l lMmm i mcy/NE g I i 27716. 4L. .27.26. 4,?. i 545 t Ex A 1 ATTORNEY.

May 14, 1940. c. l.. wHlTEHl-:AD ET AL 2,200,351

BUSINESS DICTATING SYSTEM lFiled Nov. 23, 1938 14 Sheets-Sheet 14ATTORNEY.

Patented May 14, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,200,351 Busnmssmomma SYSTEM California Application November 23, 1938, Serial No.241,988

29 Claims.

Our invention relates to business dictation systems and has particularreference to a. system which embodies a plurality of recording andreproducing machines, any or all of which are available for the commonuse of any number of dictators and any number of transcribers.

In present day dictation machine systems the most commonly known includea recording machine, usually disposed adjacent to the dictator uponwhich he records his dictation, while the transcription of the dictatedmaterial is accomplished upon a different and separate machine locatedadjacent to the transcriber, and requires the transfer of the dictatedrecords and the transcribed or reconditioned records back and forthbetween the locations of the various machines. These systems requireindividual machines for each user which are completely idle when notbeing used by the individuals to whom they have been assigned. Suchdictating machines have the further disadvantage that as soon 'as one ofthe records has been filledwith dictation it is necessary for thedictator to remove said record from the machine and substitute a cleanrecord in order to continue the dictation.

Considerable care and eiort is involved in the changing ofthe records aswell as in maintainving notes, reference slips, tags, cards 0r otherrecord identifying devices in order to co-relate a predeterminedsequence of records which constitutes one complete series of parts ofthe dictated material, in order to permit thetranscriber to pick suchrecords in the same sequence in which material was dictated upon them.

A system has been proposed whereby the dictation recording andtranscribing machine itself may be located at a point remote from thedictator and from the transcriber and arranged to be commonly used byboth of them. For example, a system of this character has beenillustrated and described in the co-pending application Serial No.,53,396, led December 7, 1935, of Ray M. Chenoweth, Emmett Irwin andWalter P. Huntley. Such a system, however, allows a single machine to beavailable only to one dictator and one transcriber so that in order tocarry the load of any oflice which includes any considerable number ofdictators and any considerable number of transcribers it is necessary toprovide a single recording and reproducing machine unit for eachdictator who expects to use the machine.

In order to provide suicient machine capacity or suihcient recordcapacity for a busy oftlce it is necessary not only to provideindividual machines or machine units for each of the dictators but toarrange for the removal, changing of, vor replenishing of the recordsupply, so that when one of the records has been filled another recordis available for dictation vofthe dictator. Again, however, it isessential that some manner of determining the sequential order of therecords be provided in order that the transcriber may follow thevsamesequence of records in transcribing the dictated material.

y It will be readily appreciated that the enormous machine capacitywhich must be provided when individual machines are assigned toindividual dictators constitutes a great waste, particularly in view ofthe fact that during the ordinary business day a dictator will only usehis machine for a relatively smalll portion of the day and that duringall other portions of the day this machine will lie idle since it isunavailable to any other person who would like to dictate materialthereto.

Another disadvantage readily apparent in the present dictating machinesand dictating machine systems is that the user of the machines mustinvest considerable amounts of money in equipment as well as in labor inorder to handle a relatively small amount of actual dictation andtranscribed material.

A typical example is that of a small business oflice which must employ astenographer, or at least a typist, and then invest in the necessarydictation and transcription machinery in order to handle what ordinarilyconstitutes an extremely small amount of business dictation. Likewise,in a relatively large office the investment in the necessary machinesrequired for a large number of dictators and a large number oftranscribers mounts proportionately with the number of dictatorsemploying the machines and further requires costly space within theoffices for the housing oi' the machines and equipment. Any attempt toemploy present day dictating machines by more than one dictatornecessitates the transporting of the machine from dictator to dictatorwith the attendant risk of damage to the machine and the loss of timeand labor in so doing. s

It is, therefore, an object of our invention to provide a dictatingsystem wherein a relatively.

cupied at that time the group of machineunits, and in whichany one ofthe unitsrwhich is not being used or oc- Will be readiiyavailable tosuch dictator. v

Another object of our invention is toprovide a dictation system, assetforth in the preceding paragraph, wherein the transcriptionl of thematerial dictated by any dictator maybe privately transcribed by thetranscriber in hisown koiiiice or in a stenographic or transcriptionvpool particularly designated by the dictator to transcribe hismaterial. l

Another object of our invention a system of business dictation as setforth in the preceding paragraph wherein the individual capacity of therecording mediumyon one machine unit does not in any way limit thelength or amount of the dictation which may be continuously made by a`dictator but in which, as soon as the recording medium on one unit hasbeen filled with dictation, the system will automatically select someother unit in the group and transfer' the controls from the dictator tothe new unit and permit him to continue the dictation on the new unitwithout interruption and withoutnec essarily allowing knowledge of suchtransfer to be transmitted backto the dictator.

Another object of our invention is to provide a dictation system as setforth in the preceding paragraph wherein the transcriber when startingto transcribe a dictators work will be automatically connected to thatmachine unit of the group which contains the start of his dictatedmaterial.

and whrein the transcriber` will automatically be transferred from unitto unit in exactly the same sequence which was previously followed bythe dictator in placing the material on the record.

Another object of our invention is to provide a business dictationsystem of the character set forth wherein any individual dictator maydistate material which will include the recording media on a sequence ofa plurality of machine units, and wherein said dictator may dictateadditional material on a new and different sequence of machine units,the dictator thus setting-up a series of sequences.

Another object of our invention is to provide a system of the characterset forth in the preceding paragraph in which the transcriber may selectwhich of the sequences she will transcribe first, and in which thetranscription apparatus will automatically follow the sequence ofmachine units and recording media set up for that particular sequence ofdictation.

Another object of our invention is to provide a system of the characterset forth in the preceding two paragraphs wherein while transcribing onesequence the transcriber may interrupt the transcription, select anyother sequence, and then return tothe point in the first sequence atwhich she stopped, without altering or otherwise disturbing the firstsequenceor losing control for the transcribing of the recorded materialthereon. 1

Another object of our invention is to provide a dictation system as setforth hereinbefore wherein during the dictation of any material adictator desiring to immediately get out some "rush" workfmay select oneof a special group of machine units reserved for "rush or emergencywork, dictate thereon such emergency communication, and have the sameimmediately. transcribed and without interrupting the sequence ofmachine units comprising the interrupted dictation.

is to provide delay.

Another object of our invention is to provide a 'dictation' system asset forth in the preceding paragraphs wherein during the dictation ofany material which may extend through a sequence of machine units, thedictator may at any time play back to himself any portion of thedictated material in that sequence whether upon the record on which heis then recording or upon an other record in the same sequence and Iinwhich the play-back of material will follow the same sequence of recordsas that followed in the original dictation of the material.

Another object of our invention is to provide a dictation system as setforth wherein the dictator may play back any of the previously dictatedmaterial on any of the preceding records of the sequence, and mayimmediately resume dictation at. the point where he left oi! withoutAnother object of our invention is to provide a dictation system as setforth wherein the actual resumptionv of dictation by the operatorautomatically places the machine in condition to resume recording at thepoint at which it was interrupted.

Another object of our invention is to provide a system of the characterset forth, wherein the transcriber at any point during the reproductionof the material for transcription may return to earlier dictatedmaterial or proceed to later dictated material and automatically returnto the point at which the transcription of the material was interrupted.

Another object of our invention is to provide a dictation system of thecharacter described in the preceding paragraphs wherein all of the voicetransmission functions and all of the necessary control functions andall of the functions permitted by the machine unit structures may beperformed over a pair of conductors extending between the transcriber ordictator and the centralized location of the machines.

Another object of our invention is to provide a dictation system as setforth, in which at any time the total number of machine units then in athird office which may be designated as a tran scription pool. i

Fig. 2 is` a perspective view illustrating, somewhat diagrammaticaily,one form of recording and reproducing machine'which may heemployed inthe practice of our invention.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the driving mechanism which may beemployed to drive the recording mediumlshown in Fig. 2; to drive therecording and reproducing head and the instruction head of the machineshown in Fig. 2; and to operatea measuring device which measures thedisplacement of the head from the point of laat recording or lasttranscription upon the recording medium.

Figs. 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, to 4J, together constitute a diagrammatic view ofone form of control herein,l other equivalents of such units beingreadily substituted forthe particular machine units described herein,provided that such units are adapted to include a recording medium uponwhich dictation may be recorded and from which dictation maybereproduced. Such machines much include a recording device which mayreceive sound undulations from a dictator and record them upon therecord while the same or other devices may be employed for reproducing`the undulations previously recorded upon the record and transmittingthem to either the dictators playback system or the transcriber's re-4producing system, and means for reconditioning the recording medium forfurther dictation.

It will be further understood that the particular character of recordingmedium employed in our system is not material. since it will be readilyunderstood that the present well known wax recording medium may beemployed or a magnetic recording medium may be employed, both of whichforms are illustrated in the said copending application, Serial No.55,396 hercinbefore referred to. and in the co-pending applica tion ofWalter P. Huntley et al., Serial No.

'213,638. led June 14, 1938.

At this point it might be well to note that it is desirable that each oithe machinev units should be provided with suitable mechanism upon whicherrors or end of letters or end of other elements of dictatx )n may besuitably registered Y in superimposed relation upon the same recordingmedium which receives the dictated material. Each of the machines ormachine units must also include suitable means forl starting andstopping the actual application ofv the dictated material to therecording medium or the actual repoduction. of the material from therecording medium under the control of the dictator or transcriber andmay be accomplished in a manner to be more fullyvdescribed hereinafter.Y

Machines illustrated in Fig. 1 as machines I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,' l, 8, 9and l0 may be .considered as the load carrying" machine units allocatedto accommodate the ordinarydictation material associated with any of thesubscribers to the system, such as all of the dictators in oice I, allof the transcribers 'in office I, the dictator in omee II and all of thetranscribers in oiliceIII and in any other offices connected into thesystem.

It will also be noted from an inspection of Fig. l that we haveillustrated two additional machine units EAB and EX which may beconsidered as emergency units allocated to receive emergency or rushmessages, telegrams. or other material for transcription which by reasonof the urgency of these communications require i immediatetranscription. Note. however, that all ofthe machine uni I|0 inclusivewhich are available" to all of the dictators A, B, and X and to alltranscribers C, D, and Y, as well as the emergency machine EAB allocatedparticularly to ofilce I for the use of the dictators A and B andtranscribers C and D in that oiilce, and the emergency machineExtallocated to-'and available for use particularly by dictator X inomceII and transcriber 'Y are located at the central station or centralisedlocation'and may be selected. controlled, and operated over a system ofwires interconnecting the lvarious oiiices with the centralized locationor central Voiiice in much the same manner as various telephonesubscribers are now interconnected with'the central oilice or thecentral location in which the selecting and controlling mechanisms maybe located.

Again, as will hereinafter more tully appear, the particular equipmentrequired to be located at each of the subscribers oiiices I, II, andIII. may be so arranged that only a single pair rof wires need extendVbetween. each of these subscribers oi'iices and the central stationequipment, and, itvwill appear from the inspection of the completewiring diagram shown in Figs.

4A through 4J that the same pair of telephone wires required to connectthe several subscribers' omces to the regular telephone exchange may beemployed as the 4necessary interconnection and control of the wires forcontrollingl all of the functions of our dictation system. Utilizingthis feature of our invention permits all of the control equipment. theselector switches and other relay equipment to be located in the centralofiice. However, as will be understood, where it is not desired tolocate all of the control equipment in-the `central omce, certainportions thereof maybe located in the various oiiices, I, 1I, and III.in which event itwill be necessary to provide a greater number ofinterconnecting wires between the location of the actual recording and freproducing machines and the particularrsubscribers omces, I. II andIII.

In order to obtain a more ready understanding oi our invention and tomore readily understand the detailed description of the various controland operating devices in the performance of the functions included inour system, we have illustrated in Fig.. l, brieiiy anddiagrammatically,

suiilcient portions of the complete system to permit of a discussion ofcertain asumed operations which may be performed and thev manner inwhich this performance is achieved.

In Fig. 1 we havev made no attempt to show all of the control apparatus'which will be located at the dictator's station by which Vthe severalfunctions of the machine and the system may be controlled by thedictator, but have merely indicated a rectangle bearing the' legend Awhich is assumed to include all of the control apparatus necessary to belocated adjacent to or within the contines of the oilice associated withdictator A. The' actual speaking and listening apparatus to be employedby dictator A is illustrated diagrammatically as a "French hand phoneset such asis commonly employed in telephone installations and whichallows the dictator to speak and have his dictation transmitted forrecording to the several machines while, through the receiver portion ofthe instrument. he may` listen to play-back'of any of the material whichhe desires to have repeated to him.

In like manner, a v similar rectangle and "French hand set is designatedby the reference character'B as constituting the equipment necessary fordictatorB. Associated with the transcribers C and D we have alsoillustrated a rectangular box which will be assumed for the purposes ofthe following brief description to include all of the control apparatuswhich may be necessary for each of the transcribers C and D acudanrespectively, the listening apparatus associated with each of thesetranscribers `being indicated as a receiver head set such as is commonlyemployed by telephone switchboard operators. Also dictator X hasassociated with him a rectanguvlar box indicating the various controlapparatus associated with his station and a French hand setrepresentative of th transmitting and receiving equipment by which hemay dictate or listen to the play-back of material.

Transcriber Y is likewise indicated as having located at olce III thenecessary control and listening equipment by which she may listen to thematerial to be transcribed.

Assuming that at the start of the operation dictator A desires todictate material for record and assuming at this time that none of theseveral machines I-I inclusive is occupied, dictator A may pick up thetransmitter-receiver apparatus whereupon an automatic selector somewhatsimilar to the selector employed in telephone systems will immediatelystart into action to connect dictator A with any one of the unoccupiedmachines I-III. The initialfselector for accomplishing this selection isdesignated as selector AS, the movable arm of which will pass over.several contacts until it arrives at a contact connected to andcorresponding to one of the machines which is not occupied. We haveassumed that machine I will not be occupied and the selector AS willtherefore stop with its movable contact member on the first point orcontact of this selector. 'I'his will connect the dictator A directlywith machine I through the interconnecting wires extending from thecontrol box for dictator A comprising a pair of conductors illustratedby lines IIlIi--iIJL Lines IUS-|01 associated with dictator A extend tothe selector AS through normally closed contacts AEL on a relay whichwill determine Whether or not the dictator will be connected to any oneof the regular dictating machines I-I inclusive, or to the emergencymachine EAB.

In our assumed operation the dictation by dictator A is regulardictation and not an emergency communication so that the contacts AELwill be assumed to be closed.

The connection of the dictating machine I will be continued through theselector AS and through a conductor associated with the first contact onthis selector which interconnects with a machine-multiple group ofconductors or cables indicated at M. It will be understood from aninspection of Fig. 1 that the multiple group of conductors or cables Mwill have a connection as indicated at N with the rst point on a machineselector IS associated with vdictating machine i. The connection,however, with machine l is made independently of the movable arm of thisselector so that the dictator will now be directly and immediatelyconnected to the machine I. This not only connects the transmitter andreceiver for dictator A with machine I to permit him to record hisdictation thereon but also interconnects dictator As machine controlapparatus with the apparatus of machine I by which its several functionsare to be controlled, and thus he may proceed with his dictation of thedesired material, starting and stopping the machine as he desires forrecording material upon the machine in much the same manner as he nowstarts and stops the ordinary dictating machine.

He also may control the necessary play-back devices by which he may playback to himself any of the previously dictated material, the detaileddescription of the construction and operation of which will be set forthhereinafter.

Assuming now that the particular piece of material which the dictator isattempting to record upon the dictation system of our invention exceedsthe normal length or capacity of one of the machine units or recordingmedia associated with machine I, it is entirely unnecessary for dictatorA to know or realize that the material he has dictated exceeds or hasreached the end of the record on machine I. As will be more fullydescribed hereinafter the approach of the recording device or recordinghead of machine I to the end limits of this machine will automaticallyset into operation suitable control lapparatus, more fully describedhereinafter,

which will cause the connections from the dictators station A to betransferred'to a new and unoccupied one of the machines I-I0 inclusive.Assuming for the example herein that for some reason machine 2 isoccupied or is unavailable at the time the dictator reaches the end ofthe record on machine I but that machine 3 is Vacant and ready to takedictation, the close approach'of the recording head on machine I to theend limit of its operation will actuate the selector IS to cause thisselector to seek an unoccupied machine.

The movable arm of the selector IS will proceed from o-ne end of itstravel toward the opposite end; crossing the several contacts which, as

hereinbefore described, are connected with the' several machines in thegroup I-IIJ; until it arrives upon a contact associated with anunoccupied machine. The selector will then stop on such contact, thuscompleting direct connection of the dictator A with the new machine.Assuming that machine 3 is the newly selected machine for continuationof the dictation, the connection to machine 3'now will be made throughthe same group of conductors or cables M and N, through jumpers P onmachine selector IS, and thence through the movable contact of thisselector to one of the group of conductors or cables N back to themachine-multiple group of conductors M. Since machine 3 is connected tothis same machine-multiple group of conductors the connection of machine3 will now extend downwardly through a conductor or group of conductorsindicated at Q. All of this selection of machine 3 will occur in asufliciently short time so that there is no need whatever for thedictator A to interrupt the continuous ow of his dictation. As will beunderstood by those skilled in this art, and in the art of telephony,selector equipment is now available which selects at the rate ofapproximately seventy per second so that no unnecessary time is lost andno interruption of the dictation is required. The dictator A, now beingconnected with machine 3, continues with his dictation.

Assuming now. that the material which the dictator is engaged indictating exceeds the capacity of machine 3, transfer of connectionsfrom the dictators station A will be made to a still further machine inthe group I-II! in the same manner as was described for the transferfrom machine I to machine 3. Assuming for the sake of this example thatthe next available machine in the group to which the dictator wasconnected is machine 5, the connections to this machine will be madethrough the machine-multiple group of conductors M and through' selectorIS for machine I, thence through selector 3S for machine 3 and backthrough the machine-multiple group M to the selector 5S tor machine B sothat the dictation may be continued as hereinbeiore described.

At this point it should be noted that from the time the dictator A liftshis telephone set from its hook until he has reached the end .of thisparticular piece of dictation, the dictator has been permitted todictate uninterruptedly, and

to play back at any time any of the previously gram, the interconnectionof machines I, 3 and 5 for this piece of dictated material ismade notonly through the machine selector group IS, 3S v and 5S but also byemploying additional levels on the selectors iS, 3S and 8S. Theparticular equipment which is actuated by the approach ot the recordinghead on each ot the several machines to either of its limits, "start" or"end. is so interconnected that should the dictator A desire to playback any portion of the previously dictated 'material he may do somerely by operating suitable play-back control devices,y and the'listening equipment at his station will be con# nected to the propermachine andl at the proper place which he has selected for initiatingthe play-back, and the machine reproducing devices will be suitablycontrolled to play back the material to him. When, however, he vhascompleted such play-back as he desires he again conditions his controlapparatus for resumption of dictation so that he may immediately resumedictation upon the last machine in the sequence o! 'machines to which hehas been connected, and he therefore continues his dictation from thatpoint in the same manner as though he had not interrupted the same forplayfback purposes.

When the dictator arrives at the end of any particular piece of dictatedmaterial he may immediately start a new piece of-dictation material or,in order to permit the transcribers to immediately have access to thematerial just com pleted, he may release all of 'the machines employedfor the dictation of this first piece of material by merely restoringthe hand phone set to its support. He may then immediately start a newpiece of dictation material and in starting the same the lifting of thehand tele-V phone set from its support will cause the selector AS toimmediately seek a new machine which is not at that moment occupied bysome other dictator subscribing to the system or which machine is notthen awaiting transcription of material previously recorded thereon..

'I'he selection oi the iirst machine in the new group or sequence ofmachines upon which he will record the second piece of dictated materialwill occur as described for the selection of the rst sequence ofmachines I, 3 and 5. The' dictator may ltherefore proceed withv thedictation of the new piece oi.' material without interference with andwithout delaying the transcription of some previously dictated material.

In the following description we refer to this first piece of dictatedmaterial recorded by dictator Ay as the ilrst' sequence" associated withdictator A and by which we mean the iirst sequence of a single machineor a number of machinesv upon which the first piece of dictated materialhas been recorded.

Thus the nrst sequence associated with dictator A includes machines i,3l and 5, in that order, and it is necessary upon the transcription ofthis material that the transcriber shall be connected to the samesequence of machines and in the same order with which the dictator A wasconnected thereto. For this purpose we have included in our system asequence remembering device or system which, as illustrated in Fig. 1,is a sequence remembering selector RSA. Suitable control apparatusincluded within a rectangle designated by the reference character A willpermit the transcriber who desires to transcribe dictator As firstsequence of the dictated A material to control the machines included inthis rst sequence, independently of the selection and control of asubsequent sequence, which has been dictated by the dictator A, or theselection and control of a subsequently dictated sequence by any otherdictator or a transcriber associated with office I. In order to permit a`transcriber rat any time to `select one of the sequences which has beendictated by the, dictator A we provide a sequence selector CS actuatedby the control apparatus'located within.- the rectangle C. Manipulationof thesequence selector CS will connect the transcriber C with any oneVot a plurality of sequences previously recorded by either dictator A ordictator B so that any one of the transcribers C or D in cnice I may .atany time start the transcription o f any oi' the sequences which hasbeen dictated j by dictators A or B.

In our assumed operation dictator A has completed one sequence, which wewill refer to as his sequence A' and' transcriber C we will assume is totranscribe the material in this first sequence. Transcriber C willoperate her control apparatus or sequence selector CS in such manner asto connect her with atsequence-multiple group of cables or conductors R,the first point on selector CS being connected to the control apparatusA' and through the sequence remembering selector RSA' to themachine-multiple group of conduc- -tors M, the particular one of suchcables or conductors to which the equipment A' will be connected willhave been selected by the sequence .remembering selector RSA and willtherefore place the transcriber C directly into communication with therst machine of this particular sequence,4 namely, machine I. Since thesequence of machines I, 3 and 5 is maintained by the machine selectors,IS. 3S and 5S, the trans'- criber C may listen to and transcribe all ofthe material recorded upon machine i, b e automatically transferred tomachine 3, transcribe all of this material, be transferred to machine5,` wand then transcribe all of the material which has been recorded onthat machine.4 In the event the transcriber C desires to repeatedlylistenA to any of the material whichhas previously been placed upon anyof the machines I, 3- and 5, she may operate the foot-switch 2i! tocause the reproducing head on the machines i, 3 and 5 to move backtoward the beginning of the record associated with these machines andthen may re-l'isten to any of this material.

As will be more fully described hereinafter each of the machines is soconstructed and arranged that the transcriber may not only move theheads backward to 'any previously listened-to 7'5

